This weekend, a friend joined my regular watching crew for the Racing match. He doesn’t follow the sport and he likes to mess with me, so he put a few dollars on Racing and spent the day cheering against me. When he arrived and announced his decision, it was quickly pointed out to him that the three goal cushion from the bookie wasn’t necessarily as large as he thought it was.

His outlook on the game got less rosy when we told him that the three league matches Barça had played at home had ended 5-0, 8-0, and 5-0. In the end, he won a small amount of cash on the 3-0 final score, but it should have been a complete loss for him as Barça dominated the game and created a host of chances that should have ended in a couple more goals. 83% possession and 19 shots!

Here’s a stupid question: how good is Lionel Messi?

A new moniker was created for him yesterday by an astute writer. The Adjective is a brilliant description, but it only suggests how good he is. 194 goals in 280 competitive matches is an astounding, and downright insane, statistic. But how good is it, actually?

I missed the first few matches of the season for personal reasons (good ones, fortunately), but I returned in time to catch a delayed version of Barça-Atleti and what a show it was. The best defense in the league versus the best offense turned out to be something of a one-sided affair that really could have been a lot worse than its final score of 5-0.

Certainly Atleti was complicit in their own demise, at least in the first half when they sat back and often failed to challenge Xavi in possession: that lack of pressure created David Villa’s first goal (though nifty footwork was still required of the Asturian striker) and a host of other chances. Fabregas nearly scored a brilliant chip from distance thanks to a complete lack of off-the-ball marking that left him alone in a good position. But it was also Barcelona’s brilliance that put them solidly ahead when Messi smashed in the third after a brilliant, mazy run that left the defense scratching its head.

Barcelona have confirmed winger Alexis Sanchez will miss the next eight weeks with a thigh injury sustained in Saturday night’s draw at Real Sociedad.

Alexis, a big-money arrival from Udinese this summer, was carried off on a stretcher during the first half of the 2-2 draw in San Sebastian and Barca have announced the Chilean is facing a lengthy lay-off.

He is expected to miss the next 13 games with Barca pencilling in the clash with Real Zaragoza on the weekend of November 19/20 as a date for his possible return.

In a properly bold font, Sport claimed on its website that 35,000 spectators jammed into the Camp Nou – as if that would fill it up – in order to see the official presentation of Cesc Fabregas. Sid Lowe, writing in The Guardian, claimed 20,000, but it doesn’t much matter. It’s the narrative that appears important here, the closing of a saga eight years in the making.

It would be virtually impossible to fail to be excited about Cesc’s inclusion in the squad. When taken at face value, the move makes sense: giving Cesc, one of the better midfielders in the world, time with Xavi before the latter retires and also to let Guardiola coach the kid who grew up idolizing him and dreaming of one day wearing the number 4 in blaugrana. That the transfer became a saga instead of a business transaction is everyone’s fault; now that it’s over it’s hard to imagine a world where every summer morning doesn’t include a glazed over eye rolling while perusing the day’s headlines.